Final Week:
I have greatly enjoyed my exploration of Marvel. All in all, my biggest discovery was Learning Express, which alas the academic library can't use. But I did tell everybody about it at the last staff meeting and encouraged them to try it at home. Maybe this will be something we can offer in the future. I also will direct students to the Encyclopedia Britannica more often, something I had overlooked in the past. The business sources were also new to me and will be useful here at SMCC. I find the hardest part of doing reference is knowing which database or source to use. So the broader my knowledge, the better. Often, a newspaper turns out to be the best source, if the topic is current and political. I was advised to always find out what the class is that the assignment is for, since this will slant the research in a particular way, such as psychology vs political science vs english comp.

I am a reference-librarian in training, so the more exposure to useful sources the better. Of course, SMCC has other resources and databases as well. We man a centrally located reference desk and also have Ask a Librarian online. We are exploring other ways of reaching our students, such as live chat.
E-reference books are increasingly important, and we subscribe to Credo reference books.

This week I viewed the tutorial for AccessScience, which is very important to SMCC. I also reviewed the literary resources in Marvel, most of which I am already familiar. A common assignment here is to find a review and or criticism of a published work.